Thursday, June 16, 2011

Sorry Tommy but it's about more than health care reform

Tommy Thompson is apparently trying to do some damage control after being repeatedly hit from the right wing of the Republican Party. It seems that his primary objective is to reinvent history regarding his support for President Obama's health care reforms. Even if we let Tommy completely revise history on that point, there are many other reasons for the attacks that he is getting from the extreme right wing.

It seems that there has always been some kind of consternation with Tommy, his advisers and the radical wing of the party. Unfortunately for all of us, those right wing radicals are now running everything (into the ground). So what makes Tommy think that he will be accepted by these radicals now that they are finally running everything?

Again, Tommy's current defense focuses primarily on his ever changing view of health care reform. But there are many other reasons that the radical right wing overlords are not fond of him. For example, they lost their collective minds when big business was asked to pay their fair share through combined reporting. But Governor Doyle was certainly not the first Wisconsin Governor to push this policy. Thompson unsuccessfully attempted combined reporting in both 1993 and once again in 1999. He practically has combined reporting as bookends at both ends of his time as governor. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Tax change that infuriates business, 12 years in making, isn't a surprise", 2/18/99]

You don't even have to stop at health care reform and combined reporting when you are counting the ways that the current Republican establishment disregards/derides Tommy Thompson. Many of them would probably cite run away spending and the lack of sufficiently extreme positions on social issues.

It is clear that Tommy loves the speculative attention that he gets whenever he talks about running for an open seat in Wisconsin. Even if he were serious this time, sadly the Republican Party of Wisconsin has gone completely off the deep end. This new extreme brand of Republican and Tommy's actual record will never mix well. Sorry Tommy, this longstanding problem is not going to be remedied by simply spinning your position on health care reform. It is about so much more than that one issue.

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I started Eye on Wisconsin in 2004 before becoming the blog editor/research director for One Wisconsin Now (2006-2008). Now I operate a research firm & detective agency. I work for progressive candidates, orgs, and individuals. I also conduct investigations for law firms and businesses.